Thanks a lot guys for all of the positive responses. I suppose I couldn't have earned more of your respect by bringing down a trophy buck. The biggest reward is getting to be a part of a community of hunters who share my values. After getting her all dressed out I found she was much meatier than I thought she'd be. No idea on weight but I suspect she might have been a non-productive doe who's been doing nothing but putting on pounds. My only regret was not preparing better and learning how to skin a deer to save hide. Her's was REALLY soft, not like a lot of buck hides I'd felt in the past. Would have been cool to keep as I don't really plan on hunting Doe for their skin in the future. Oh well, I'll learn.
RadSav, You'll be hearing from me soon ;-), thanks for the offer I appreciate it.
3nails, I will take you up on that offer when the season opens next year if it's still available. I had NO luck with Bear this year and could definitely use a few pointers. I have no hunters in my family so I'm very happy to meet new people and learn from them.
Russ_mcdonald, I absolutely think there can be a lot of factors to throw off a shot. I hope I didn't come across as too negative about the original hunter. It was evening, getting dark, and I could easily be in his or her shoes. Better to leave the judging to someone else. It's also a densely populated area and if a deer doesn't drop in thirty yards around here it's gonna jump a fence and be somewhere else quick.
h2ohunter, I agree, would have been worth it if she was on the white line!
A final note, I'm happy to announce that my most Anti-Hunting co-worker was appreciative of how things went down yesterday. It only took a couple of hours for him to regress and start calling me a filthy poacher again but that's ok because I had a couple of hours of peace.
